


A Domesticated Girl

by marchionessofblackadder



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M, Red Cricket - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-12
Updated: 2012-10-12
Packaged: 2017-11-16 03:39:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,279
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/535062
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/marchionessofblackadder/pseuds/marchionessofblackadder
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ruby isn't jealous, she just knows what she wants.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Domesticated Girl

**Author's Note:**

> My first piece for Red Cricket. Oh, how I love them.

Ruby had an excellent intuition, and it had never failed her.  
  
But when she let herself into her boyfriend’s house with his key, Pongo trotting happily beside her on his leash from their walk, it hardly took any sense of instinct to notice Archie was on edge. Especially when he was standing behind the curtain near the bay window, peering around the edge and watching the street. When he didn’t react to her entrance, Ruby raised an eyebrow, her hand wrapped in Pongo’s leash resting on her popped red jean clad hip and gave the door a little slam shut that jarred him out of his stupor.   
  
Archie startled, dropping the curtain and looking up, blinking from behind his glasses with a smile. “Hey.”  
  
“Something you want to tell me?” she asked, strolling into the living room. She bent down and unhooked Pongo’s leash and hung it up with her coat on the coat rack, tossing her long hair over her shoulders. Seeing her reflection nowadays always threw her off balance, the lack of red streaks a little unnerving. She looked so plain, but Archie preferred her with just her natural hair. He never said that, of course, but she noticed he was fond of playing with her hair and did so more often when she wasn’t wearing her colored extensions or clip-ins. But she liked his hands, gentle and sweet as they were, far more than the wild hair accessories.  
  
Far, far more.  
  
“Not- not really,” Archie gulped, his eyes glancing back to the window that looked out at the street.  
  
Ruby slipped out of her heels before prowling over to him, tiptoeing across the carpet, her hips rolling. She touched a hand to his cheek, not failing to notice the small bead of sweat at his temple. She leaned up and touched her nose to his. “You’re a bad liar, Hopper.”  
  
“I know,” Archie mumbled lamely, his quirky little smile sheepish. He was bright red, almost matching his hair when Ruby bit her lip suggestively. He cleared his throat and averted his eyes, “Mayor Mills is coming by.”  
  
“To give you the money she owes you?” Ruby asked, walking around the couch and falling back to sprawl in the most unladylike fashion beside Pongo, rubbing his neck. “Finally. That witch bitch’s been holding out on you.”  
  
“I really hate to ask for it,” Archie murmured more to himself than Ruby, wringing his hands together, keeping his place behind the curtain. “From anyone.”  
  
“But especially her,” Ruby snorted. “You should see the looks she gives me when I collect her tab at the diner. It’s like she thinks because she’s Mayor she’s entitled to everyone’s service.”  
  
“Well she does run the town,” Archie muttered.  
  
“But she doesn’t own it, lovebug,” Ruby squirmed on the couch until she was on her knees, leaning her elbows over the back of the couch and smiling up at her boyfriend, flashing him a bright white, wolfish smile. “And she doesn’t own you either. You’re all mine.”   
  
“Ruby, please,” Archie stammered, fighting his own blush and smile against her seductive wink. Ruby rose up on her knees over the back of the couch to give him a kiss, but before their lips met, the sound of a car pulling in the driveway cut the quiet. Archie pulled away to look out the window, “Oh- that’s her.”  
  
Ruby rolled her eyes and slid up off the couch. “Come on, Pongo, let’s make ourselves scarce. We don’t want her threatening a muzzle.”  
  
Archie blinked through his glasses, squinting across the room at his girlfriend. “Pongo doesn’t bite.”  
  
“No, but I do.”  
  
The doorbell rang before Archie could stutter a reply, and Ruby and Pongo disappeared into the kitchen where the part time waitress fed the dalmatian before working on making them some lunch. She’d just gotten around to making her and Archie a couple of turkey sandwiches and pouring some lemonade when she heard voices rising from out in the hallway. The mayor should’ve definitely been gone after five minutes: all she had to do was give Archie money.   
  
No lecture required.  
  
So when Ruby leaned her ear to the swinging kitchen door and heard Regina’s low voice beginning to growl like a cat, saying, “This is the last time you make demands of me, Dr. Hopper, especially when you’ve failed me, and more shamefully-failed my son.” Regina had a fistful of bills and threw them at Archie’s chest. The doctor didn’t even try to catch them, his words stuttering on his lips.  
  
“Hey!” Ruby bared her teeth, striding out of the kitchen with her eyes narrowed. The mayor glanced up, a little thrown off at seeing the part time waitress, but Ruby didn’t think to enjoy the moment. She pointed down at their feet. “You wanna pick those up?”  
  
Regina leveled her chin, her shoulders pressed back. “No, I don’t.”  
  
“Well you better, before I make you,” Ruby growled, her white teeth clenched so hard her jaw began to ache.  
  
“And how, Miss Lucas, do you propose you are going to do that?” Regina asked with a perfectly arched eyebrow and a self-satisfied pout of her lips. “I don’t respond kindly to threats.”  
  
“I was hoping you wouldn’t. Want to know why?” Ruby took a step forward, revelling in the woman’s step backward that seemed to come from pure instinct. The girl in red flashed a feral grin, her fingers curling and uncurling at her sides. “Because one of these days, Mayor Mills, you’re not going to be able to push us around anymore. One of these days, you’re going to get what’s coming to you, and I’m willing to bet that Sheriff Swan would make a great mayor herself. We’ve even talked about it,” Ruby revelled in the way Regina’s back met the door, her smile turning sickly sweet. “And when that day comes, who’s going to stand up for you in your corner, when all you do is step on everyone else?”  
  
Regina pursed her lips primly before kneeling down and picking the money up, handing it to Archie with a snap of her wrist, and set Ruby with a dark, hunted look. “You would do well not to be on my bad side, Miss Lucas.”  
  
Ruby fluttered her fingers in the air, rolling her eyes. “I’m shaking,” she twittered. “If anything, Madame Mayor, you should worry about me. You’d be surprised how much gossip flows around the diner, what gets perpetuated,” Ruby smirked, reaching past Regina and opening the front door, waving her arm. “And trust me, my bite is a mean bitch.”  
  
Regina pulled her jacket neatly forward, glancing between Archie and Ruby before stepping out of the house, her face twisted in bitter annoyance. Ruby slammed the door behind her and spun on her heel, hands on her hips to face her boyfriend who was looking at her with an open mouth. “You shouldn’t do that,” he said softly. “You shouldn’t threaten her, stoop to her level. She could make your life hard, Ruby- and for me, that’s just silly.”  
  
“Maybe, but I like being a little silly. Besides,” she prowled closer, twirling her fingers around Archie’s tie and pulling him close. “I’m territorial. Didn’t I ever tell you I don’t like to share?”  
  
Archie flushed that same cherry tomato red, his hands awkwardly moving at his sides like he didn’t know where to put them. “I think you might have mentioned it.”  
  
“Well, maybe I should stake my claim, then,” Ruby smiled, raising up on her tiptoes and brushing her nose to his before sharing a sweet, soulful kiss. “Because you see, Dr. Hopper, I mate for life.”


End file.
